Measure the value added! Educator urges Jamaicans not to judge schools solely on CSEC performance

Accomplished educator and lecturer at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Joan Spencer Ernandez, is warning against using students' performance in external examinations as the only basis for comparing and branding schools.

Spencer Ernandez was pointing particularly to the yearly school rankings published in the media, which position high schools based on the quality of scores they receive in the annual Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) General Proficiency Examinations. She argues that to rank schools based on their performance in the CSEC is unfair to upgraded high schools as often, they face a range of challenges not common to traditional high schools.

Spencer Ernandez raised her concerns during a series of literacy workshops held recently by the Mutual Building Societies Foundation (MBSF) for the academic staff of six upgraded high schools under its Centres of Excellence programme.

Comparing schools

"You can't compare schools which are receiving students who are reading at the primer and pre-primer levels, and expect them to achieve at the same number and quality of subjects five years later as their peers who entered grade seven reading at or above the grade seven level. They are at a clear disadvantage!" Spencer Ernandez argues.

The ranking of schools, based on their performance in the CSEC exams, has been a sore point for many educators over the years. Many of them contend that the disparity in resources available to traditional and upgraded high schools, and the quality of learners streamed into both categories of schools leave little upon which to draw a comparison.

The records also show that students who are usually channeled into the upgraded schools do not perform as well as those channeled into the traditional high schools. In addition, the non-traditional schools are the ones that receive students through the Grade Nine Achievement Test (GNAT).

Spencer Ernandez says many children entering grade seven at upgraded high schools need to be brought up to the required reading and numeracy levels before they can begin to access the content of the curriculum.

"What we need to measure, and compare if needs be, is the value that has been added at the end of the child's school tenure," she says.

Addition challenges

Her viewpoint was supported by many school administrators and teachers from the six rural-based high schools who insisted that their students' scores should not be compared with those of students attending traditional high schools.

Principal of the Green Pond High School in St James, Michael Ellis, pointed out that in addition to the challenges with literacy and numeracy, the schools are also usually forced to deal with students who have serious behavioural challenges.

"Sometimes the students are almost adults by the time they get to us," he said, pointing to the students received through the GNAT. "And at that stage, many of them are difficult to manage. I often spend up to 80 per cent of my day treating with indiscipline!"

"We believe in adding value to the students," he emphasised.